Ask Lemmy

I'm sure I have a bunch, but for the fediverse I think the most controversial is that I think neopronouns are a bad idea. DISCLAIMER I support queer folks, and I also use neopronouns when requested (because there's zero reason to be a dick about it), but I think everybody would be better off without them.

The entire purpose of pronouns is to offer a quick, generic (i. e. non-individual) way of referring to people or objects without using their names. Using neopronouns which have to be communicated and learned first is the opposite of that. So in my view they're not really pronouns, just additional names one has to learn for a person.

I think the most sensible way of accommodating all genders is using whatever pronouns are present in the language (usually male and female, or a generic pronoun), plus a non-binary pronoun if needed, like singular they in English.

7-11 was a Part Time JOB!

There is no moral way to raise a cat.

Either they live inside and live an entire life in a few thousand square feet at best for 16-20 years, or you let them outside to hunt and they kill tons of wildlife and are exposed to becoming roadkill/coyote food etc.

My personal dodge is to adopt old cats that have already been indoctrinated into inside life and who could never be let out anyway.

Nudity alone - without the intent to shock or arouse - shouldn't be taboo, criminal, or censored.

Suicide should be a human right. You should have to prove that you're of sound mind and that you've considered and tried all other options. But once you've proven you're not manic, psychotic, intoxicated, being coerced, etc and no other option will reasonably bring you peace you should be able to do it and get help making sure you don't get stuck halfway or receive comfort care only until it's over. Also every psych unit I've worked requires suspension of a DNR which terrifies me for involuntary admits.

Humanity can't be fixed, will always be selfish, greedy, discriminating against other people who differ enough, since a bunch of these things are pretty much hard coded. You might not be, some people you know might not be - but statistically, the majority of humanity will happily watch others get oppressed (or worse) for various reasons. There will always be people who manipulate others for power/wealth, disregarding law, morals or the environment, and there will always be a fuckton of gullible/dumb/mean people who happily buy the propaganda for reasons above.

Therefore, no matter what kind of society you try to form, with enough time we will get back to where we are now, and humanity will never be able to break out of this downward spiral, due to its inherent fault.

...which leads to my main controversial opinion, based on the above: the only cure to the mass extinction and the worsening climate happening today is the eradication of the human species. Yes, it would be such a shame saying goodbye to all the great things we have achieved, dad jokes, poetry, the Backstreet Boys; all this means nothing if everything dies on a scorching/freezing planet. At least if we take out humanity, other forms of life could survive, and life as we know it isn't really found on every other planet.

Obviously there will be nothing wiping the human race off of the face of the Earth, and if it somehow ever disappears, it will be by its own doing - but chances are that will also take all other forms of life with it.

Looking at all the awful things humans have been doing to each other, all the pollution, all the ignorance, all the destruction, I wouldn't hesitate a bit if there was a red button in front of me that could magically make them disappear (including me, of course). In the blink of an eye. I would slam down on it as fast as I can.

Everyone (including kids and teens) should have full bodily autonomy. This includes how they express gender. Parents should not be allowed to circumcise/mutilate their kids' genitals for reasons that aren't medically necessary, nor should they be allowed to lay their hands on their kids in a violent way (and yes, that includes "only" spanking). Parents who hit/spank their kids should be charged with assault and child abuse.

Kids and teens having basic rights might not be controversial here, but in the rural area that I'm from, it certainly is.

It's pronounced "gif"

• Some people absolutely need to be killed for the greater good of society.

Somewhere around the majority of people employed in academia are absolutely useless.

I say this as an academic.

Aight I got one, I believe the elderly are less valid than the young and should have a lot of their privileges taken away. No voting once you hit retirement, no more driving, they should be entirely at the mercy of public infrastructure and if it's not good enough for them then too bad. They had their entire life to build a better future and look where we are now. The senior vote has practically enabled fascism and they deserve more hatred for the way they think and behave. Especially since they are dependent on the young to bring in enough taxes to pay for their pension.
Anyways, let's see who this upsets most 😅

Communal anarchy is as valid a political orientation as any other

That religion is for gullible people.

Religious indoctrination is child abuse.
Sending your kids to places of worship or a religious school, or telling them "this is our religion", is child abuse.
This includes christofascists and oppressed minorities.

I'm on the fence as to whether telling your child they are a girl or a boy is similarly harmful.

Not a serious one, but my hot take is that helping people move is fun!

Alot of people complain about it, but think about it. You get to spend quality time with friends or family, get a little exercise, teamwork, and usually at the end of the day you get to share a well-earned meal together

ITT people posting lots of things I don’t find controversial at all.

Plastic straw pollution doesn't have a measurable impact on the environment.

The entire thing about banning plastic straws comes from some high schooler using back-of-a-napkin math to guess how many straws are in the ocean in what was clearly a successful attempt at starting a science fair project the night before it was due. Some news station picked it up, and then a bunch of science-illiterates ran away with it.

You can't determine the impact of pollution by count. Straws are tiny and weigh almost nothing. If you skip buying one pair of sneakers in your life, then you've successfully reduced your plastic use by almost a lifetime of plastic straws.

Removing plastic straws is probably the single least impactful way to reduce plastic pollution. It's pure virtue signaling: it's about presenting an image of being environmentally conscious while doing effectively nothing to help the environment.

Some people shouldn't have kids, and some children probably shouldn't be born.

Being mtf or ftm trans is conforming to gender stereotypes with extra steps. Abolishing gender stereotypes and letting everyone express themselves however they want would be far better for society overall.

I don't mean that in a negative way and fully support respecting self identification because that has the best outcomes in the real world.

It's controversial in countries like Australia...

We need to standardise English, and we need to accept the US won in spelling.

Conversely, the US needs to accept they lost the metric/imperial war and start changing their shit to be less stupid.

What the fuck is 90 ~~stone~~? How long is 2.5 miles? Pounds = lbs? How? (Okay US doesn't use stone)

Don't get me started on the "19 hamburgers is equal to 5 eagles" memes.

Also, everyone needs to accept the ISO date format.

YYYY-MM-DD

You're objectively wrong if you think any other format is comparable.

Also also, you can keep using feet and inches for your own height as long as you're between 5-6 feet.

Otherwise I get confused.

Vegans shouldn't have pets. If the ethos of veganism is consent for the things others give then it should be thought of as slavery for them to own any, especially if they feed a carnivorous animal a vegan food alternative.

The US isn't the great Satan, they are quite contemporary satan. Russia, China and Iran are all imperialist, anti democratic and have even worse human rights violations.

You don't have to pick a side, these are all asshats, some more than other though.

If we allow people with significant dark tetrad personality traits (narcissism, machiavellianism, psychopathy, everyday sadism) or social dominance oriented people to have any meaningful amount of power over others, including the ability to run for office or vote, they will eventually turn societies into… well, what we see now.

Unsurprisingly conservatism overlaps with those traits.

So, ironically, to be able to run a functioning democracy, you'd have to exclude a fairly sizeable chunk of the population from participating in it

Edit: and this includes directorial or managerial positions in any kind of organisation, because corporate psychopaths are common scarily common and very harmful

This is a tricky subject to approach, since it can be reduced to a really hurtful or even misogynist slogan, but I'd like to see more physical comedy in media involving women. Think running into walls, smacked by a spinning plank, or depending on the cartoon believability of the media, crushed by a falling piano.

I started a longer writeup of why that's "important" to me but before I bend over backwards to defend it I'm curious what others think.

You want co controversial?! Ok
I think we should be able to decide our own deaths if we want too, and that should be law. Depresion is real, yes, but a lot of people want to LITERALLY impose life into others. Not only talking about end stage or crippling disease but also psychological issues so bad living with it is torture. You reading this and disagreeing are doing it becuse you afe either religious, and you are imposing your religion into others, or someone else would feel bad, regardless if the person lives in agony, they have to live to not make someone else sad. "I don't want my son to take his life" YOU YOU YOU.

Of course I think there should be procedures and controls in place, like +21, 1 or 2 years mandatory psychiatric follow up, if you have youngs kid you also can't. But if you are an adult, no kids, fuck your opinion dude, it's their life their choice.

People get mad at me for thinking it's morally better to adopt than to jump through hoops to concieve your own child. There are actual children already alive who need a home. It's wasteful to bring new people into the world when there are already children in need. If you can't love someone else's child as much as your own, you shouldn't be a parent. I'm not saying nobody should have their own children ever. If you get pregnant and you want children, by all means, keep it. I just object to going to great lengths to conceive your own child when you could give a home to someone in need.